Leveraging Unique Talents
It’s graduation season, a time of celebration as students mark major transitions in their lives, moving onward and upward from high school, college or graduate school. For parents, graduation represents a major milestone on their child’s journey towards independence and adulthood.
But for many parents whose children have autism or other disabilities, graduation is a goal often postponed, sometimes indefinitely or even permanently. Even those fortunate enough to earn a degree often struggle to get and keep a real job for real pay. While we’ve improved access to education for people with disabilities, access to transition services and meaningful employment remains far too elusive. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 21% of all disabled adults participate in the workforce, compared to 70% of their non-disabled counterparts. The numbers for the autism community are particularly troubling; one 2009 study revealed that employment rates for people with autism are among the lowest of all disability groups.
This week, SAP, a German software company, announced plans to help the autism community change its employment odds. The world’s biggest business-management software maker intends to hire people with autism as software testers, programmers and data quality assurance specialists.
“SAP sees a potential competitive advantage to leveraging the unique talents of people with autism, while also helping them to secure meaningful employment,” the company said. SAP will begin its hiring project in Germany, then North America, with the aim of having people with autism make up 1 percent of its 65,000 member workforce by 2020.
To achieve this goal, SAP will partner with Specialisterne, a non-profit that “works to enable one million jobs for people with autism and similar challenges through social entrepreneurship, corporate sector engagement and a global change in mind-set.” SAP’s partnership with Specialisterne is the brightest spot thus far in a modest but promising trend of training and employment projects aimed at people with disabilities.
SAP executive board member Luisa Delgado said that SAP and Specialisterne “share the common belief that innovation comes from the ‘edges.’ Only by employing people who think differently and spark innovation will SAP be prepared to handle the challenges of the 21st century.”
Management consultant expert Peter Drucker famously stated that “the task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make weaknesses irrelevant.” SAP and Specialisterne are applying this same principal to people with autism by utilizing their unique strengths while helping them overcome their challenges, so that they can work, contribute to society, and lead meaningful lives with dignity.
Well done.
Beth T. Sigall
May 25, 2013
School House Wonk 